


Everybody Loves Skip

by baloobird



Series: Asexual Awareness Week 2019 [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Acephobia, Angst, Anti-Starker, Asexual Character, Asexual Peter Parker, Attempted Sexual Assault, Awesome Tracy Leeds, Biromantic Peter Parker, Bisexual Ned Leeds, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Idk any other romantic tags, Inaccurate Justice System Rules, Inaccurate School System Rules, It's not graphic I promise, M/M, Ned Leeds is a Good Bro, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Platonic Cuddling, Protective Ned Leeds, Protective Tony Stark, Romantic Cuddling, Sexual Harassment, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark is a Good Dad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2020-12-27 05:43:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21113654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baloobird/pseuds/baloobird
Summary: Professor Steven Westcott is a younger teacher, somewhere in his thirties. He's energetic, gets along well with his students, and actually makes the subject more enjoyable than what the name assumes. The man has even gone so far as to have the students call him "Skip" instead of "Mr. Westcott" because he doesn't want the kids to seem inferior to him.He sounds almost too good to be true.-College students Ned and Peter didn't expect to like their humanities teacher, Mr. Westcott, and find that he's actually a pretty cool guy.Until he's not.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Asexual Awareness Week, everyone!!!! I decided to celebrate by posting some ace fics throughout the week, I hope you enjoy them!!!!
> 
> Please, PLEASE read my tags before continuing, it's not graphic and it doesn't get that bad, but please be safe 💜
> 
> Inspired by an episode of _Boy Meets World_

It is the end of another humanities class at MIT.

Eighteen-year-old Peter Parker is sitting at a desk in the middle of the classroom with his boyfriend, Ned, in a desk next to him. Why taking a humanities class is relevant for engineering majors is beyond them, but everyone in that program has to take one, so here they sit. At least the teacher is interesting and not some old guy who sounds like the audio version of a textbook.

Professor Steven Westcott is a younger teacher, somewhere in his thirties. He's energetic, gets along well with his students, and actually makes the subject more enjoyable than what the name assumes. The man has even gone so far as to have the students call him "Skip" instead of "Mr. Westcott" because he doesn't want the kids to seem inferior to him.

He sounds almost too good to be true. 

The professor says one last thing before he dismisses his students, "Okay, so I've read through your papers and well, most of them were, well, pretty bad. C'mon, guys, this isn't high school anymore, I know you're better than this. We're going over them, next class."

As the class groans in response, the young couple look at each other in confusion. Ned whispers, "I thought mine was pretty decent."

"Yeah, mine too."

At hearing the wordless complaining, Skip counters, "Or I could just flunk all of you and call it a day."

The class immediately starts cheering instead and the man smirks in response, "Yeah, that’s what I thought, okay go on, get outta here."

The crowd disperses as the two teenagers pack their things but Peter is taken by surprise when his name is called by his professor, "Hey, Peter, can I talk to you for a second?"

Thanks to his conditioned response throughout school, Peter's heart rate immediately increases with anxiety, "Um...yeah, sure." He then turns to his boyfriend and whispers, "God, my paper must really suck."

"Or your paper is so amazing that you don't need corrections and you're gonna be the reason why the curve is destroyed."

The spiderling snorts, "Yeah, I'm thinking it's the first one."

Ned fondly rolls his eyes as he gets up with his backpack in tow, "Whatever, dude, see ya in a few."

Peter walks to the teacher's desk as the last of the college kids are leaving and waits anxiously for why he was asked to stay behind. 

Skip sits in his chair and gets his student's paper from the top of the pile, "I just wanna say that your paper was easily one of the best ones; it was well-written, well-sourced, you argued your points. Overall, it was a really good paper."

The eighteen-year-old is pleasantly taken aback and his heart rate gradually goes back to normal, "Oh...wow um, thanks."

_ Holy shit, Ned was right. _

"My only negative is the summary, you kinda fizzled out a little bit there, but don't worry, we'll go over it."

"Oh, okay yeah...yeah, okay."

Skip leans back in his chair and asks, "I'm curious, though, the topic you picked isn’t like most of the others. How'd you come up with it?"

Peter tentatively scratches the back of his neck, "Um, well, you said to pick a controversial topic and explain your side of it and well, 'Does Asexuality Belong in the LGBT+ Community?' _ is _a controversial topic. It shouldn't be, but it is." 

"Interesting, but why _ that _ topic, I've never heard of it."

The teenager continues scratching his neck in nervousness, "Um, let's just say that that topic, uh, hits close to home for me."

Skip's eyebrows shoot up in surprise, "You're asexual?"

Peter's heart rate increases slightly. He wasn't expecting to reveal so much of himself to this guy but he stays confident, "Uh, yeah...yeah, I am."

The teacher nods his head and gives his student a friendly smile, "That's cool, man, never met one of you before."

The spiderling's eyebrows narrow in confusion. 

_ "One of you"? What’s that supposed to mean? _

Skip continues, "And you have a boyfriend, right? How does that work?"

_ How does he know I have a boyfriend? _

"Um, it just-it just does," Peter can't help but smile, "Ned's great, he's-he’s _awesome, _ actually. We're happy...really, really happy."

Skip's smile grows, "That's great, Einstein, I hope everything works out for you two lovebirds." He then changes the subject, “So, how’s college life so far?”

_ Oh my God, I’m gonna die of awkwardness. _

Peter flushes at the nickname, “Um, it’s good so far, learning a lot and stuff.” He lightly adds, “It’d be even better if Cameron Hall could get some showerheads that actually work.”

Skip lightly snorts, “Welcome to college.”

The teenager is expecting the man to dismiss him but when there is a weird lull of silence, he says, “Um, I have another class that I need to get to so, um, thanks, Mr. Westcott.”

The teacher blinks and shakes his head in a way that looks like he’s snapping out of a trance, "Oh yeah, no sweat, and please, dude, call me 'Skip.’ Mr. Westcott is my dad and I'd like to think that I'm not _ that _ old."

The teen fake-laughs as he damn near races out the door, "Okay, uh, I'll remember that."

-

"I don't know, Ned, something's off with that guy. Like, how did he know about us?"

The two teenagers are done with their classes for the day and are now sitting at a small table in a coffee shop on campus. They're both drinking their respective lattes with one hand while their other hands are held casually on the table. 

Ned playfully smirks at his boyfriend, "Well, Peter, we're not exactly secretive about it," he gestures to the hand-holding, "Maybe he's just observant."

Peter sighs and takes another sip of his latte, "Maybe, but like he kept asking about my paper and stuff and...being asexual. I don’t know, it was just weird, man."

Ned looks slightly worried, "He didn't say anything bad, did he -"

"No, no he didn't, he was actually cool about it, surprisingly, I just -"

The other teen tightens his grip and starts lovingly rubbing his thumb on his boyfriend's hand, "Babe, you're overthinking again."

The young hero groans, "It's what I do best."

_ "Clearly." _

"And why are we calling him by his first name anyway, that's so weird."

"Because it's cool, _ he's _ cool; he actually makes the class interesting. Him having us call him by his nickname, that makes us his equals, not his degenerates. He's like one of us, dude."

"I guess -"

"I _ know. _ Stop worrying so much, you're gonna make your hair go gray before you’re twenty-five."

Peter smiles cheekily, "You'd like the 'salt-and-pepper' look -"

"You would not rock the 'salt-and-pepper' look."

"Wanna bet -"

"No!"

They both get in a giggle fit at that. When they calm down, Ned says, "Okay, forget about that 'Skip to My Loo' guy or whatever. So I was thinking," his grin grows fully and he tightens their grip, "Tomorrow's Friday, aaaaaaand it's supposed to rain all weekend."

Peter's smile grows as well, "Yeah?"

“I say we get hot chocolate, like _ gallons _ of hot chocolate,” the other teen playfully rolls his eyes at the exaggeration, “And we watch Netflix all weekend and never get out of bed, we’ll be _ sewn _ into it.”

The spiderling snorts, “Babe, we do that on most weekends when we wanna procrastinate homework.”

Ned shrugs, “Yeah, but this time it’ll fit the aesthetic.”

Peter’s snort turns into a full-blown laugh, _ “Obviously, _ it sounds perfect.” He tightens his grip on his boyfriend’s hand.

Ned reciprocates, “I’ll get the hot chocolate tomorrow while you’re in class.”

The other teen whines, “How did _ you _ end up not getting Friday classes?”

The genius says smugly, “‘Cuz _ I _ don’t have ‘Parker luck.’”

Peter props his free elbow on the table and rests his cheek on his fist, “I hate you.” He continues after Ned has a short “snicker-fest”, “This is why when we get married, I’m taking your name.”

The other teen shakes his head, “Hell no, this is why when we get married, we’re _ keeping _ our names. I don’t want my last name to be tainted by yours.”

The hero jokingly scoffs, “The second you say ‘I do’ will cement that ‘luck’ into place, babe.” He puts on a smug smile of his own, “Face it, Ned, you’re _ doomed.” _

Ned’s smile falls and he gives the teenager an unamused look, “I hate you.”

Peter’s smugness doesn’t falter, “You love me, ‘cuz you wouldn’t risk tainting your last name if otherwise.”

“You’re making it hard to love you, right this second -”

“But not hard _ enough?” _

_ “Shut. Up.” _

“What, it’s a viable question.”

“I’m gonna smack you.”

“You would _ never.” _

Ned pauses for a brief second before sighing in defeat, “Fine, you win.”

Peter smiles victoriously, “I love you.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, love you too.” Ned can’t help but crack a smile, himself. How is it possible _not _to love him?

-

Later that evening, the two lovebirds are in their dorm room and about to go to the cafeteria for dinner when their humanities professor unexpectedly knocks on their open door, “Hey guys, how’s it going?”

The two teenagers are startled at the unexpected guest but are happy to see him, all the same. Ned answers, “Hey, man, it’s all good, whatcha doing here?”

Skip steps into their room, “Oh,” he gestures to the paper he’s holding, “I was in the neighborhood and I was wondering, Peter, if you wanna go over your paper that we talked about earlier?”

Peter raises an eyebrow in confusion, “Um, yeah, sure, but is it gonna take long? We were just about to head out.”

The older man waves him off, “Yeah, yeah, it won’t take long, I promise.” He then turns to Ned, “Sorry, I didn’t know you guys were also roommates or else I would’ve brought yours too.”

Ned shrugs uncaringly, “No worries.”

Peter turns to his boyfriend, “Hey, Ned, you can go ahead and go, I’ll meet you there in a few.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, it’s fine, I know you’ll get bored.”

The other teen shrugs again, “Okay cool, bye, Skip.”

The professor responds with a goodbye of his own and after Ned leaves the room, he sits in one of their desk chairs. Peter sits on the edge of the bed that’s closest to said desk and leans forward to make sure he absorbs any information his teacher gives him.

Skip starts once he flips to the end of the paper, “Like I said earlier, you fizzled out in the summary, it’s like you did a one-eighty: the paper itself was really good but then you got vague at the end here.” He moves from his spot in the chair to the bed next to Peter and shows him where he went wrong.

Peter is even more confused, “Aren’t I supposed to be vague in the conclusion? I mean, I spent six pages discussing this topic, I didn’t want the summary to be completely drawn out like you’re reading the paper all over again.”

The older man scoots a little closer to Peter without him noticing and says, “Yeah, but there’s a difference between summarizing and barely stating what your paper’s about.”

Peter resists the urge to roll his eyes.

_ Can’t you just give me the “A-minus” and call it a day, I’m starving. _

The boy then decides to just give in to defeat, “Okay, I’ll remember that for next time, I’ll be more detailed in the conclusion. Thank you.”

“Oh yeah, man, no sweat. You’ve got a lot of potential, Einstein, I just wanna see you use it.” Skip then scoots even closer to his student, to the point where their legs are barely touching.

That is when Peter’s “spidey sense” flares up. 

He is suddenly aware of how close he is to his teacher...and how said teacher is sitting closer to the door than he is.

_ This sick fuck...at least the door’s still open. _

Not wanting to give away his knowledge of Skip’s _ real _ plans for being here, he gingerly scoots away from him while still pretending to be into the conversation. The boy then says, praying that there is no shakiness in his tone, “Well, I’m-I’m definitely using it as best as I can, and I’m, um, I’m learning a lot so...thanks...have a good night.”

_ Get the fuck out of my room. _

Obviously not taking the hint, Skip scoots closer to his student, but this time he takes said student by surprise and lightly puts his hand on the teen’s leg, right above the knee.

The web-slinger’s “Peter Tingle” is _screaming _at him.

Peter gets Skip’s hand away from him and works up the courage to say, “Get out, I want you to leave.”

The pervert gives him a smug look and responds with, “No you don’t.”

_ What the fuck?! _

The genius scrunches his eyebrows in even more confusion, “What?”

Skip puts his hand back on the kid’s leg, slightly higher up this time, “Y’know, I’m really glad you took my class, Einstein.”

_ Really? ‘Cuz I’m starting to regret it like a _lot.

The older man continues, “From the first time I saw you,” he locks eyes with the teenager, “I knew you were something special.” 

Peter feels bile crawling up his throat and swallows it to keep everything down.

_ Ewwww, what the fuck is this? _

The kid gets that disgusting hand away from him again but Skip just puts it back where it was except this time it’s terrifyingly close to his groin. Peter finds his voice as he attempts to get the hand away from him, “I’m asexual _ and _ I have a boyfriend, so when I say ‘get out’, I mean it.”

Skip talks to him in a way that sounds like he’s talking to a little kid, “Oh, Peter, you just don’t know what you want yet, but that’s okay, I’m here to help you.” He goes to put his hand on the hero’s upper thigh again when said hero quickly stands up to get away from his touch.

The freak follows suit, making sure to block the path to the door, “Whatcha gonna do, Einstein?”

_ Bodyslam you into the wall if you don’t get the fuck out. _

Peter is about to say something of that nature when he unexpectedly hears Ned’s voice from the doorway, “Hey, sorry to interrupt but I forgot my phone.”

The web-slinger has never been so damn happy to see him, he actually feels a bit alleviated. He glances at his desk and low and behold, the savior that is his boyfriend's cell phone is sitting on the edge of it.

Skip casually turns to Ned and reassures him, “No worries, Ned, I was just leaving.” He then turns to a slightly trembling Peter, “Bye, Peter, see you Tuesday.” And with a wink, his tormentor is out the door.

Peter sits back on the edge of the bed and tries to collect his bearings but his knee can’t stop shaking and his brain can’t fully grasp at what the fuck just happened.

Ned asks as he grabs his phone, “You ready to go, I’m hungry.”

_ I’ll be lucky if I don’t throw up my insides. _

At hearing no response, Ned looks at his boyfriend and his forehead creases with worry, “Babe, you okay?”

Peter doesn’t say anything for several seconds. After that time passes, he wraps his arms around his gurgling stomach and whispers, “I-I didn’t like that, I really didn’t like that, Ned, I didn’t…”

His boyfriend’s worry skyrockets to a hundred and he quickly sits on the bed next to him, “Peter, what happened, what’s wrong?”

Ned puts his hand on his boyfriend’s knee with the intention of comforting him, but all that Peter can think about is Skip and he shouts, “No!” before pushing the other teen’s hand away.

But unlike Skip, Ned complies, “Okay, okay!” He scoots away from him and puts his hands up in mock surrender, “No touching, got it.”

Peter realizes what he did and looks at the other genius with guilty eyes, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, oh my God, I’m sorry -”

Ned reciprocates the look with wide eyes of his own, “You’re fine, Peter, but calm down, what happened?”

The other teenager calms down slightly by taking a few deep breaths. His gaze goes to the floor between his feet, “Skip...Skip, uh, he-he made a pass at me. He didn’t wanna go over that damn paper.”

Ned’s eyes widen even more and he feels his own stomach gurgle in disgust, “No way, what the fuck?!”

“I know!” Peter takes another deep breath and puts his head in his hands, “I know…”

The other genius’s mind then jumps to the worst-case scenario and he asks apprehensively, “Um, Skip didn’t...I mean, um, did he, um...Peter -”

The spiderling quickly looks up and locks eyes with his boyfriend, “No! No, um, it wasn’t that bad, he just touched my leg a lot it's-it’s fine now.”

Ned looks at him in disbelief, “No it’s not, are you kidding me? You have to report this.”

Peter’s eyes widen in fear, “With what evidence, Ned? All they’re gonna do is hang me out to dry, they’re not gonna believe me.”

“You don’t know that. Look, _ something _needs to be done. No one hurts my boyfriend, my _ best friend, _ and gets away with it.”

Peter blushes at “best friend” and cracks a shy smile. Despite taking their relationship farther than that, they’ll never not see each other as such, “I’ll think about it, mostly ‘cuz if I see him next week, I know I’ll puke.”

Ned sympathizes. He’s itching to physically comfort him so he tentatively asks, “Can I touch you -”

The hero cuts him off by wrapping his hands around him in a hug, “Thank you for forgetting your phone.”

Ned reciprocates and lays his head on top of the other’s for additional comfort, “I’m so glad I did.”

-

Peter wanted some time to himself and while the other teen was hesitant to leave him alone again, he gave in anyway, mentally kicking himself the entire walk to the cafeteria.

Ned is fucking _ furious. _

Not just at the newfound attacker, but at himself as well.

How _stupid _was he? How stupid was he to leave his boyfriend alone with a teacher in their room? How stupid was he to not realize that _any _teacher waltzing into a student’s dorm room - especially after hours - just screams trouble.

The anger towards that scumbag increases the more the teenager thinks about it. He trusted Skip, he _liked _ Skip, but little did they know that the guy is moonlighting as a sexual predator.

Everything makes sense now, Ned thinks: the staying after class, the weird questions about Peter being asexual, it all adds up.

So when Ned walks into the cafeteria and sees said tormentor talking animatedly to a group of young college girls, he can’t resist the urge to go confront him.

_ So, he doesn’t have a type. Well, that’s good to know, I guess. _

The teen walks over and interrupts his teacher mid-story, “Hey, Skip, can I, um, talk to you for a second?”

The man looks at the student in surprise but then cracks a “friendly” smile, “Oh, sure thing, Ned.” He turns back to the group, “Have a good night, ladies.”

They get up and walk out a side door of the cafeteria, where Ned knows there won’t be heavy foot traffic. He then stops and turns to face his professor, whose back is now to a window; at least Skip won’t try anything with so many other students around.

Unexpectedly, Skip talks first, “Ned, your paper, it was good, but there’s definitely some room for improvement -”

“Um, we’re not talking about the paper.”

The attacker’s eyes widen in confusion, “Oh, okay, what’s up?”

“Look, Peter wasn’t comfortable with you in our dorm room earlier.”

Skip crosses his arms, “Really?”

“Yeah, he said you were hitting on him.”

The older man thinks about that for a few seconds before shrugging his shoulders and saying, “What if I was?”

Ned is in so much shock that he staggers back a step, “What?”

_ Did this guy seriously just up and admit it? How cocky is this son-of-a-bitch? _

Skip nonchalantly shrugs his shoulders again, “So lemme ask you, Ned: how can you stay with someone and not get _ anything _ out of the relationship?”

Ned rolls his eyes and crosses his own arms in front of him, “If I don’t _ get _ anything out of it, then I wouldn’t be with him.”

That takes the creep by surprise, “Really? You _ do _ see what I see, right?”

_ What the fuck is he talking about? _

Skip continues, “You see the way his hair curls in all the right places? The way his shirt rides up when he raises his hand? The way his jeans are _ juuuuust _ tight enough to -”

“You’re sick.” Ned feels his stomach gurgle again and thinks that maybe eating dinner is a bad idea.

His teacher ignores him, “You mean to tell me that you see that _ every day _ and you’re _ not _ hitting that?”

The teenager tries his best to not let his anger show, “What Peter and I do or don’t do is none of your damn business, but that’s not the point. The point is: you made a pass at him in our fucking dorm room. Why would you pursue someone who’s half your age, your student, taken, _ and _ asexual?”

Skip rolls his eyes, “Y’know, I looked up the whole ‘asexu-thingy’, didya know that some of them actually _ like _ sex?”

Ned rolls his eyes again, “Yeah, some do, but _ Peter _ doesn’t.”

“He just doesn’t know what he’s missing, and obviously _you’re _too chicken to help him. He needs a real man for that.”

The young genius’s anger increases tenfold, “Stay the fuck away from him or we’re gonna report you.”

The pervert busts out laughing, “Good luck doing that with no evidence. And who says he didn’t enjoy it?”

_ “He _ said he didn’t enjoy it.”

“That’ll change...after I fuck the ‘asexual’ right out of him.”

It happens in one swift move, so fast but in slow motion at the same time.

Ned pushes Skip square in the chest.

And he goes _flying. _

Skip crashes into that window behind him, the sound of glass shattering leads to gasps and screams of horror from the crowd. 

The teenager just watches it all like he's watching a 3-D movie that's too entirely vivid, not even realizing that he just assaulted his damn teacher.

The predator lands on an empty table that still had a few plates strewn on it. The sound of crunching from under him doesn’t sound like it’d be good for his back but Ned could not give any less of a fuck. 

But what the teen doesn't expect to see is his boyfriend looking at him from inside the cafeteria with eyes of pure, unadulterated shock. 

In a flash, he sees Peter rush out the side door and then quickly envelopes him in a hug, “Ned! Oh my God, what happened?!” Ned hugs back but doesn’t say anything, still in somewhat of a daze.

_ Yeah, what _did _just happen? _

They hear more commotion from the direction of the broken window and turn to see Skip struggling to get off the table but eventually sitting up. 

Everyone in and around that room is dead silent.

The man pushes some chairs out of the way and stands up fully, stretching while doing so. He then turns to the two teenagers and they can’t tell if he’s angry, hysterical, or both.

Definitely both.

A strike of fear filters through the pair and Peter protectively steps in front of Ned. Skip locks eyes with the spiderling and gives him a menacing smile, making the other teen’s eyes flare with hatred.

As he’s looking at Peter, Skip says only one thing before walking away, “Congratulations, Einstein, looks like your little boyfriend just got himself kicked out of college.”


	2. Chapter 2

Both teenagers have been curled up on one of their beds for over an hour now. Ned is sitting up slightly with his head against the wall that’s protected by his pillow, and Peter has his own head laying on his boyfriend’s collarbone. They have their arms wrapped around each other, taking solace in the other’s comfort.

Because what else can they do? 

Peter is grateful, honored even, for what Ned did on his behalf, but hates that he got himself into so much trouble like this, trouble so insurmountable that their classmates wouldn’t even begin to imagine the level of scrutiny they’ll be under.

They called their guardians when they got back to the room and Peter also called Tony, who said to just sit tight until they figure out what's going to happen next. It’s too late in the night for the school to do anything now so actions will probably be taken first thing in the morning.

And boy, are they dreading that morning.

None of the adults even know what led Ned to physically assaulting a person in power, they just know he pushed him. It didn’t feel right to explain why over the phone.

So there they lay, stomachs gurgling from both anxiety for the unknown and no food consumption at dinner - no way were they staying after all of _that _happened. They really should eat, Peter thinks, but he can’t muster up the energy to get anything.

After several minutes of silence, Peter whispers, “What did he say?”

Ned knows what he means by that, “Peter, no -”

Peter looks at him with pleading eyes, head still resting on his collarbone, “Please, Ned, I know he said something, you wouldn’t have hit him if he didn’t.”

“Well, I didn’t _ hit _ him -”

The hero is unamused, “Call it what you want but you’re still getting in trouble for it. Ned, _ please, _ I need to know what he said.”

Ned is firm in his response, “No, Peter. Like you said, there’s a reason why I acted like I did...because what he said _wasn’t good. _ You’re better off without knowing, trust me.”

“Can you at least throw me a bone?”

The genius sighs deeply and rests his head against the pillow, “He said he wasn’t gonna stop.”

Peter swallows a lump in his throat. He knows what that statement implied but he asks anyway, “Stop what?”

“Y’know...getting with you. He wasn’t gonna take ‘no’ for an answer.”

The spiderling looks away from him and takes in a deep breath, “Gotcha.”

“You wanted to know.”

“And that’s not the worst of it?”

“Nope.”

Peter sighs and settles back into Ned’s comfort, “Thank you. I hate that you did it, but I love that you did it...you’re amazing.”

Ned half-smiles and tightens his grip on his boyfriend, “I didn’t even realize I did it, it was like I had an out-of-body experience or something. But I’d do it again in a second.”

The web-slinger smiles as well and gives the other boy a quick kiss on the cheek before settling back in his previous position, “I love you.”

Ned blushes at the kiss, “I love you too. Now, you need fuel.” He gets up and starts looking in their cabinets for anything to eat.

Peter sits up on the bed and crosses his legs in front of him, “You need food too.”

“Yeah, but I don’t have the appetite of ten cheetahs.”

The other teenager rolls his eyes, “Whatever.”

Ned smiles victoriously as he takes out a few bags of popcorn.

_ That’s right, I won. _

The popcorn is soon popped and consumed. After they put on pajamas and climb into their beds - the beds are way too small for them to share one comfortably - neither one can find themselves being even the least bit tired. 

Ned says while staring at the ceiling, “I really don’t want tomorrow to come, man.”

Peter turns and faces him on his side, “Me either, but we got Mr. Stark on our side, he’ll fix it.”

Ned glances at the hero before looking back at the ceiling, “I hope so. Looks like we gotta put our weekend plans on hold, huh?”

The pale teen smiles, “Well, when this all gets fixed, you just owe me a week’s worth of hot chocolate.”

Ned grunts, “I’ll have all the time in the world to do that once this is over.”

Peter’s smile falls, “Ned, don’t say that, everything’s gonna be okay.”

The other teen turns his head towards him, “I hope so, babe...I really hope so.”

-

The following day, Peter skips his classes to stay with Ned. The spiderling snuck to the cafeteria earlier and snagged some breakfast before anyone recognized him while also trying not to focus on the caution tape that is now crisscrossed over the remainder of the window. 

Neither of them say much as they eat their food. There is a sort of gloom that’s cast over them, they notice, like it’s a weird way of “Mother Nature” telling them that something bad is about to happen.

Ironic that this gloom didn’t appear before something bad _actually _happened.

At about mid-morning, they hear a knock on their door and brace themselves for whoever’s on the other side of it. Ned opens the door and sighs in relief at seeing his mother, Tracy. Before the teen can react, she quickly walks in and embraces her son in a hug.

Ned’s voice comes out muffled against his mom’s shoulder, “It’s so good to see you, oh my God.”

That statement makes Tracy tighten her grip around him, “I’m so glad to see you too, baby.” When she lets go of their grip, she surprises her son by using her finger to flick the side of his head.

Ned winces at the light sting, “Hey, what the -”

“What the _ hell _ were you thinking?!”

The teenager holds up his hands in a form of surrender, “I-I-I can explain, I swear.”

A new voice chimes in from the doorway, “You better, or we’ll toss you out the window.”

Peter turns toward the door and relaxes at seeing his aunt and father figure walk in. He immediately greets May with a hug to which she reciprocates and says a soft, “Hey, sweetie” before kissing one of his cheeks. 

The young hero asks, “How’d you guys get here so fast?”

Tony answers, “It’s like you don’t even know me, I am offended. We teleported, _ duh.” _

The pale teen snorts as he lets go of his aunt’s embrace and wraps his arms around his hero, “Thanks, I needed that.”

The older man smiles, arms wrapped around his kid, “Anytime.” He then addresses both halves of the young couple, “Now, anyone wanna fill us in on what really happened, ‘cuz we’re _ dying _ to know, over here.”

Tony feels his intern tense at that and gives him a worried look. Whatever happened, it definitely wasn’t good, he thinks.

Tracy turns to her son and lovingly cups one of his cheeks, “Sweetie, what the hell was going through your head? I mean, the first time you get in a fight and it’s with a _ teacher _ -”

Ned cuts her off, _ “I know, _ I know. Look, I know it was dumb but I didn’t do it for no reason.” He turns to his boyfriend, “Peter, you wanna tell ‘em or me?”

Peter tenses up even more as he sits on the edge of one of the beds. May sits right next to him and starts rubbing comforting circles into her nephew’s back, “Peter, it’s okay, we love you no matter what stupid thing happened.”

The curly-haired teen is embarrassed all of a sudden. He knows what Skip did wasn’t his fault, but he willingly left himself alone with him in his room, how big of an idiot is he?

And now he has to tell his loved ones. Telling Ned was already hard enough but telling these adults that are all just staring at him, he can’t help but start to shake with anxiety.

As Tony encouragingly ruffles his kid’s hair, Ned pulls out a desk chair for his mom to sit and sits on the edge of the other bed, “Peter, it’s okay, they’re not gonna be mad.”

“But I was so stupid -”

“No you weren’t, don’t say that.”

Tony kneels until he’s at eye-level with his protege, “Pete, you’ve done a lot of stupid shit,” he briefly pauses when said kid grunts, “But I got a feeling that this isn’t as stupid as we’re all thinking it is.” He gently puts his hand on the kid’s knee but lets go when said kid unexpectedly flinches.

Peter takes in May’s comforting circles, her motherly warmth that he will never get tired of, and takes in a breath, “He hit on me...the teacher Ned pushed.”

Gasps and sighs of shock fill the room. May’s parental gestures don’t falter as she tries to wrap her head around what she just heard, “He hit on you as in he made a _ move _ on you?”

The spiderling wordlessly nods his head.

Tony, while trying not to let his anger show, asks, “In the classroom?”

Peter shakes his head and points towards the floor, “In here.” 

The man’s eyes widen, “Here? Like _ here, _ here, in your dorm room?”

The kid nods his head again, “He said he wanted to go over my paper but he really didn’t.” He sees the worried faces and assures them, “It didn’t get that bad, I promise, he just touched my leg, that’s it.”

May guides her nephew’s head to rest on her shoulder and he complies without question. She then moves her arm and wraps it around him, stroking his bicep for an extra feeling of security. She speaks softly, “I’m so sorry you had to go through that, baby. We’re gonna figure it out, okay?”

Peter nods his head.

Tony is _pissed. _

_ Well, at least the flinching makes more sense now. _

He then turns to Ned, still knelt on the floor, “And that’s why you kicked the guy’s ass?”

Ned stammers, “Well, um, I really didn’t do much, honestly, I just, uh -”

Peter smiles gratefully, “He was _amazing. _ The guy crashed through the window and everything.”

Tracy moves to sit next to her son and responds in astonishment, _ “Edward Leeds, _ you really pushed a full-grown man through a window?”

The teenager stutters, “Uh-uh-uh, yeah...yeah, I did.”

Tony looks at the kid with an equal amount of shock and awe, “Really? He crashed through it like _really_ crashed through it?”

Ned’s cheeks blush as he nods his head.

The man shakes his head in disbelief, “Holy shit, was the window that fragile or didya suddenly get super strength and not tell us?”

The young genius snorts as his mom rubs his back, “Yeah, definitely the second one.”

Tracy sighs solemnly, “Sweetheart, you shouldn’t resort to violence -”

“I know, Mom, and I swear I wasn’t planning to do that, it just...happened. He said some stuff and it just made me _ so _ angry.”

The woman continues consoling her son, “Did he get hurt?”

“I mean, his back’s probably sore today.”

Tracy smirks, “Good.”

Everyone chuckles at the unexpected response. Peter then turns to his mentor, “Mr. Stark, what’s gonna happen to Ned?”

The atmosphere in the room goes silent.

“I talked with my contacts in the ‘higher-ups.’ The dean has scheduled a hearing for later on this afternoon. There is a chance that Ned could be expelled from school.” He then stands up and walks to the kids’ window.

Peter lifts his head up, fear visible on his face, “But you’re gonna fix it, right? Everything’s gonna be okay and Ned’s gonna be okay and Skip’s gonna be the one actually getting kicked out, right?”

Tony answers as he’s inspecting and tapping the glass, “Fixing it is much easier said than done, kiddo. There’s at least a dozen witnesses and no one heard the conversation beforehand. It’s gonna be hard to refute this, but we’re gonna try our damndest, okay? So, how're you guys feeling?”

Ned shrugs in nonchalance while the spiderling fidgets with his hands in front of him before saying, “I’m fine now.”

The man gives Peter an unamused look without the kid noticing.

_ Yeah, I’m sure. _

The man then says offhandedly, “I’m also gonna replace your windows.”

Both teenagers lift an eyebrow. Ned responds, “But Mr. Stark, the window looks fine.”

“Ned, you pushed a whole-ass person through one, if that window was so damn fragile, what does that say for the rest of the windows on campus, huh?”

Peter snorts before telling his boyfriend, “You’re not gonna change his mind, Ned. It’ll probably be done before the hearing’s even over.”

Tony chimes in, “That’s the plan.”

May then changes the subject in an effort to cheer everyone up, “How ‘bout we just get outta here for a little while, huh? Anyone hungry, you guys hungry?” She turns to her nephew, “And don’t you dare shake your head, young man.”

The two teens look at each other and smile despite the situation. Ned answers the question, “Yeah...food sounds good.”

-

After they had an early lunch, Peter finds himself walking aimlessly around campus. No way was he going to sit in his dorm room until the hearing - he would go absolutely insane - and he wanted to be alone to get his thoughts in order.

He feels bad for leaving Ned but the adults are around to keep him company so it’s not like he completely abandoned the guy.

As Peter walks more and more past those brick buildings, it’s starting to click with him that this might be his boyfriend’s last day here.

All because of him.

The teen is trying not to feel so guilty about this, but he can’t help it. Ned could literally get expelled _ today _ because of some stupid, not-actually-that-bad thing that happened.

His brain likes to remind him of the not-actually-that-bad thing but he’ll learn to deal with it.

The crazy part is: Peter is a superhero, _ he’s _the one that has the super strength and spidey sense. _ He’s _the one who should’ve pushed Skip into that damn window, but Ned just _had _to get involved.

_ Interesting what love makes people do, I guess. _

Before the genius realizes it, he has wandered to the student center and is walking in...maybe he’ll get a drink or something, the teen thinks.

Peter strolls to the almost-empty café that's inside and his blood runs cold at seeing his infamous humanities teacher sitting at a small table in the corner, grading papers. 

_ This guy is always hanging around where students go and _no one _notices? _

The kid starts to walk away before the professor sees him, but he surprises himself by walking to his table instead, skin crawling all the while.

He stands across the table from his attacker with his hands gripped tightly onto the back of a chair. He shakily says before he chickens out, "You-you crossed a line, y'know."

Skip looks up and is shocked at seeing his student standing right in front of him, "Einstein, whatcha doing here?"

Peter resists the urge to roll his eyes, "I'm a student, what are _ you _ doing here?"

Skip gives the teen a smug look, "I'm a teacher, two can play at this game."

This time, the hero does roll his eyes, "Do you even care?"

"About what, Einstein?"

"Stop calling me 'Einstein'! And you know what."

The man nonchalantly shrugs, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Bullshit. Llook, Ned didn't mean to hurt you like that, but he was angry and he protected me the only way he knew how." Peter tightens his grip on the chair, hoping his strength doesn't break it, "So _please, _ Skip, drop the charges against Ned...and I won't tell anyone that you came onto me. I won't report it or anything."

_ C'mon, dude, there's gotta be one decent bone in your body, at least. _

Skip's eyebrows scrunch in what looks like thought for a few seconds before he looks back up at the teenager, "But you came onto _ me." _

Peter is so confused that he loosens his grip on the chair, "What?"

The teacher then starts turning the tables on him, "You know what you did."

"What the fuck?!"

Skip smiles in a way that makes Peter want to take a three-hour shower, "You're gonna pay for it, Petey."

"They're not gonna believe you. I have a boyfriend and I told you I'm asexual -"

"You just said that to get me to trust you."

The kid's fear and anger increases tenfold, "You’ve gotta be kidding me."

Skip ignores that last statement, "But little did I know that all you wanted to do was to get in my pants."

The teen leans forward slightly, putting more weight onto the back of the chair, "You came into _my _dorm room, remember? Or is your _ disgustingness _ screwing with your head?"

The predator just shrugs, "I just wanted to go over your paper, but you were all _ over _ me. I can't just let this slide, Peter."

Peter's jaw drops to the floor. He can't believe how convincing that sounded. 

Skip gets up while the teenager is still processing the latest exchange and gets his stuff together. 

The spiderling feels his heart rate escalate and one of his fingers starts to twitch. This guy can't seriously twist all of this around, can he? And have it actually work?

Peter is still in a bit of a trance when Skip whispers in his ear, "See you at the hearing, Einstein."

The spiderling flinches violently as the pervert walks away, so intensely prickled with goosebumps that he feels like he could actually jump out of his own skin.

_ Do not fucking call me "Einstein." _

Once the man is out of his sight, Peter plops into the chair and puts his head in his hands. 

_ Don't freak out, don't freak out, he's obviously bluffing, don't. Freak. Out. _

He doesn't know how long he sits like that or how long he tries to get control of his breathing, three minutes, three hours, or three days, who knows.

The teen cowers when he feels an unexpected tap on his shoulder. He looks up just as his father figure sits in a chair next to him.

Tony looks his kid in the eye, "I knew you were lying when you said you were fine."

Peter looks at him as if he appeared out of thin air, "How'd you know I was here?"

"Mentor's intuition." The mechanic sees his kid's "That's bullshit" look and tells him the truth instead, "Okay, I _ might _ still have the tracker on your watch."

The kid groans, "'Helicopter Mom', much?"

"In light of recent events, can you blame me?"

The teenager sighs in defeat, "Is it time for the thing yet?"

Tony groans, himself, "Nope, still got a few hours, you haven't even been gone thirty minutes."

Peter slams his head on the table, "Seriously?"

The man gives him a sympathetic look, "Sorry, kiddo. Look, we got some time to kill, wanna go for a walk or something?"

The kid responds, head still on the table, "Yes, please."

-

“Alright, Pete. No aunt, no boyfriend. How’re you feeling, and _ don’t _ say that you’re fine.”

The father-son duo are strolling in and around campus, not unlike what Peter was doing by himself earlier. Tony has his arm wrapped his kid and said kid can’t help but get that warm, fuzzy feeling of being safe and loved.

Peter shrugs, “I feel, I don't know, weird, I guess.”

The older hero hums in curiosity, “May I ask why?”

“It’s just...I was so stupid -”

“For the millionth time, no you weren’t -”

The teen looks up at him, “Yeah, I was! Like, I let Ned leave the room, I _ told _ Ned he could leave, I left myself alone with him, Mr. Stark. I was practically begging for it -”

_ “Whoa, _ hold it right there, Parker.” The mechanic stops his protege in his tracks and turns him so that they’re standing directly across from each other. He then puts his hands on both of his kid’s shoulders, “Lemme ask you this: when he stopped by, did you let him in, or did he ask if he could come in?”

Peter thinks for a couple of seconds before shaking his head, “No.”

“Didya give him any reason for him to think that you wanted him to stay?”

The teen shakes his head again, “No.”

“Did he listen to you when you told him to leave?”

The kid shakes his head again, this time with a hypothetical light bulb going off above his head, “No.”

Tony gives his intern a reassuring smile, “Don’t beat yourself up, kid, you didn’t do anything wrong, I promise.”

Peter sighs and rests his head onto his father figure’s chest, “Thanks.”

The man wraps his arms around his protege and gives him a quick kiss on the top of his head as a form of “you’re welcome.” He then recoils, “Sorry, you’re a college kid now, you probably don’t want anyone seeing this -”

Peter tightly wraps his arms around his hero, “I don’t care, do it again.”

Tony smiles softly and complies, leading his kid to let out a breath of utmost content and wishing for this moment to never end.

The kid then looks up at the older man, “How much longer?”

The genius takes a quick look at his watch, “Just under a couple hours, we should probably start heading back.”

Peter nods solemnly and the two of them resume the position from earlier with Tony’s arm protectively wrapped around his kid’s shoulders.

After a couple of minutes, the teenager decides that he better warn Tony before the hearing starts, “Mr. Stark, um, Skip’s gonna try and twist it to where I look like the bad guy.”

Tony’s eyebrows narrow in confusion and he looks down at the kid, “How do you know that?”

“‘Cuz...I talked to him earlier.”

The man abruptly stops them both, _ “What?! _ When in the hell didya _ talk _ to him?”

Peter hesitates before answering, “In that café place before you got there. I wanted him to drop the charges against Ned, but then he started spinning it to where _ I _ looked like the creep and I don’t know what to do now and -”

Tony softly shushes him as they continue walking, “Calm down, kiddo, it’s gonna be alright. He’s just saying that shit to scare you, okay, he _wants _you and Ned to fail, and he’s gonna say whatever it takes to make that happen. The truth always comes out and believe me, it’s all gonna come out.”

“I hope so. Um, Mr. Stark?”

“Yeah?”

“When all of this is over, can I come visit? I mean I know I gotta come back on Sunday but -”

Tony chuckles good-naturedly and tightens his grip on his kid, “Pete, I never wanna hear you say ‘visit’ ever again, understand? But you can come _ home _ anytime you want.”

The young hero’s heart fills with warmth and he leans more into his father figure’s comfort.

Throughout the rest of the walk to his dorm, there is a tiny part of Peter that is growing ever so gradually with hope.

That maybe this will all be okay, after all.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Closing off Ace Week with part 3!!!! Thank you so much reading, I had such a blast with these 💜
> 
> I want to preface this by saying that I'm not an expert in the slightest about anything court-related. This is inspired by an episode from a TV show, so I can bet my life's savings that it's not accurate...I hope you roll with it 😂

“Mom, with all due respect, I don’t care what anyone says. Even if I do get expelled, I don’t regret what I did.”

Ned and his mother are sitting across from each other on his bed. May left a few minutes ago to get various things for the kids and Tony disappeared not long after that, probably to track down Peter, the teen thought.

Tracy sighs defeatedly and grabs ahold of his son’s hand, “Why did I have a feeling that you were gonna say that?”

Ned takes solace in his mom’s comfort, “I know I shouldn’t’ve done it but he deserved it.”

“I’m sure he did, I _ know _ he did, but is he worth expulsion?”

“If it means he’s still gonna be here...no, no he’s not.”

“He’s not worth it _at all, _ honey. But we can’t dwell on that now, can we?”

The teenager shakes his head, “Mom, what’s gonna happen...if I get expelled, I mean?”

Her grip on Ned’s hand tightens, “Don’t go there, okay, you’ll just drive yourself crazy, it’s already a stressful situation as it is. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, _ if _ we get to it.”

“God, what if he stays? Peter’s still gonna have class with him -”

“Again, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. You worry too much.”

Ned gives the woman an amused look, “Look where I get it from.” His expression then changes to one of slight confusion, “Seriously though, how are you _ not _ freaking out so much about this?”

“Oh, I am, _ believe me, _ but I just know how to hide it well.”

The teen is even more confused, “Is that like a secret ‘mom’ superpower that you just acquired or something? ‘Cuz I’ve seen you freak out over like a stain on the couch or when I’d get detention, this isn’t exactly detention, Mom -”

“Do you _ want _ me to freak out, ‘cuz I will.”

The kid snorts, “No,’cuz if you freak out, then I’d just freak out even more.”

“Exactly. Can I ask you something, sweetie?”

“Yeah?”

“You said that you weren’t planning on hitting him, right?”

“Right, I swear I didn’t mean to.”

“But what were you thinking when you confronted him? What were you hoping to accomplish?”

That gives the teen pause. 

Ned thinks about that previous night, about how angry he was, how stupid he felt.

He wasn’t thinking much at all when he confronted his teacher, if he was being honest. 

He tells mother as such, “I wasn’t thinking. I was so angry about what happened and I got even angrier when I saw him so...I kinda let that decide for me, I guess. I just, I guess I just wanted him to admit what he did and maybe apologize for doing it, but that was a pipe dream.”

Tracy tightens her grip on his hand, “So, what have we learned?”

Ned rolls his eyes, _ “God, _ you’re such a mom, I’m not ten anymore -” 

_ “Answer the question.” _

The teenager sighs defeatedly, “Think with your head, not your heart?”

“And?”

Her son rolls his eyes again, “Confront people using only our words?”

His mother smiles, “Precisely. Unless in self-defense, _ only _ use your words, understand? Physical contact can be dangerous, baby, first expulsion, and who’s to say that the next could mean a hospital, huh?”

Ned looks down solemnly, “Yes, ma’am.”

Tracy then embraces her kid into a hug, “Whatever happens, you know I’m always on your side, right?”

Ned hugs right back, “Always. Thanks for coming, by the way, you didn’t have to.”

The woman releases her grip, “Are you kidding, I would’ve gone stir-crazy just waiting around to see what happens. There was nothing Tony Stark could do to keep me off that plane.”

The young genius smiles fully, “How can you drive me crazy and make me feel better at the same time?”

Tracy winks at him, “Another ‘mom’ superpower, I’m finally putting that ‘How Moms Become Superheroes’ handbook to good use, huh?”

Ned shakes his head whilst cringing, “I take back what I said, you’re the worst.”

She smugly grins, “I know.”

Both get into a giggle fit at that. When it dials down, Tracy says reassuringly, “If this hearing doesn’t go our way, it’s not gonna be the end of the world, okay? We’ll figure it out, we always do.”

Ned doesn’t know how else to respond to that except to nod his head.

They’ll figure it out.

No matter what, they’ll figure it out.

-

The room where the hearing is taking place is smaller than the teenagers thought it would be. Instead of being in a room where big courtroom dramas happen, it’s actually in a large conference room with three long tables pushed together in the shape of a “U.” That makes Ned and Peter both ease their anxiety somewhat.

In a matter of what feels like seconds, the room fills with various school officials and onlookers. The dean of the university is sitting in the middle of the table at the base of the “U” and the two opposing parties are sitting at the other tables across from each other and fortunately, far enough away for there to be no physical contact.

Both college students are sitting next to each other, clad in dress shirts and slacks, with the older hero sitting on the other side of Ned. Since this isn’t an official court trial, an attorney isn’t needed, so the billionaire is more than ready to defend his kids and make this pervert suffer.

The pervert in question is sitting by himself and just looking at him makes the spiderling’s stomach start to twist in knots...maybe he shouldn’t have eaten before this thing, he thinks. May somehow seems to sense this even though she and Tracy are sitting behind them and leans forward to give her nephew a heartfelt squeeze of his hand. Peter breathes out and tries to not squeeze too tightly before letting go.

Once everyone gets settled in, the head of the university introduces herself as Dean Lila Bolander and starts off by asking Skip a question first, “Alright, Steven, what happened?”

The man puts on that charming, boyish tone that the teens are now more than familiar with and answers, “I was in the cafeteria, talking to a group of girls about their project for one of my classes when Ned Leeds comes up to me and asks to speak to me alone. I thought he wanted to talk about his paper, but instead, he accused me of sexually harassing his boyfriend, Peter Parker.”

One of Peter’s hands start shaking, so he finds Ned’s under the table and grabs on for dear life. His boyfriend rests their grip on his leg and squeezes back, with no plans of letting go.

Skip continues, “When I told him that I did no such thing, he didn’t believe me, I guess, and that is when he pushed me into the window.”

When Skip is done with his statement, Tony asks him a question, “Why were you in their dorm room earlier that night?”

The tormenter reports in stride, “I wanted to go over Peter’s paper.”

The hero’s eyebrows narrow in confusion, “In their dorm room? You couldn’t’ve just gone over it in your office like y’know, everyone else?”

“Me and my students have a relationship that goes beyond the classroom. They don’t need the professional settings of a classroom or my office to talk to me about their assignments or personal issues.”

Tony rolls his eyes, “How’d you even know what dorm they were in?”

The predator damn near smiles in victory, “Peter told me himself at the end of one of our classes, completely unprompted. Isn’t that right, Peter?”

The young hero scowls at him.

_ Don’t fucking patronize me. _

The spiderling’s knee starts bouncing uncontrollably, “Y-Yes, I told him, but I didn’t invite him over or anything, it was just something I said in conversa -”

Skip cuts him off, “Thank you.”

Peter is taken aback by that statement.

_ “Thank you”? What the fuck is that supposed to mean? _

The dean then turns to Peter, “Mr. Parker, I want to know from your perspective: what happened last night that apparently lead to this incident?”

Peter feels that embarrassment creep on him again but he represses it and squeezes Ned’s hand again. His gaze goes everywhere but to his attacker in front of him, “Ned and I were about to go to the cafeteria for dinner when Skip walked in and said that he wanted to go over my paper -”

Skip interrupts him, “By the way, the door was already open, Dean. And I didn’t even make the kid stay, he could’ve easily said ‘no’ -”

Tony angrily cuts the pervert off, “Let the kid talk -”

The professor ignores him, “I even asked his boyfriend to stay, but _ Peter _ was the one who told Ned to leave. Isn’t that right, Peter?” He locks eyes with said student and it makes the teen’s skin crawl.

The young hero sighs defeatedly, “Yes, but my assignment had nothing to do with Ned, there was no point in him staying -”

Skip interrupts him yet again, “Thank you -”

Tony cuts in angrily, “Say ‘Thank you’ one more time -”

The dean settles both parties, “Calm down, both of you.”

The mechanic sighs, trying to keep his anger in check before turning towards the administrator, “Can Peter continue now since he was so _ rudely _ interrupted?”

Said woman, looking annoyed at this point, confirms, “Yep. Peter, what happened after Ned left?”

The spiderling swallows a lump in his throat before continuing, “Skip sat in a chair and I sat on one of our beds. We did talk about the paper at first but-but then he moved to sit next to me, and then he kept getting closer to me.” He feels Ned squeeze his hand in support and takes a glance at Tony, who’s giving him an encouraging smile. The teenager takes another breath and says, “And then he started touching my leg. I-I kept pushing him away from me and telling him to get out b-but he wouldn’t listen,” his voice gets softer as he finishes his testimony, “He wouldn’t listen to me.” 

Ms. Bolander, now etched in concern, asks the young genius in a softer tone, “What happened next, Mr. Parker?”

Peter tries to make his voice at least somewhat confident, “I got up, I-I wanted to get outta there but he was blocking the door. I-I didn’t know what to do, um, but then Ned, uh, he showed back up ‘cuz he forgot his phone, and then Skip left.” He feels his aunt’s hand rubbing his other arm and despite the situation, his heart fills with that motherly warmth he loves so much.

After the spiderling is done with his statement, the dean turns back to the teacher, “And you say that _ none _ of that happened, Mr. Westcott?”

“Correct, nothing of what he just said is true.”

As Tony rolls his eyes, the head of the university leans back in her chair, “He sounded pretty sincere to me, so what _ did _ happen then? And please, Steven, don’t let this be a waste of my time.”

“Of course, miss. It was actually _ Peter _who was sexually harassing me last night, not the other way around. He came onto _ me _ in that dorm room.”

Both eighteen-year-olds glare at their teacher, hate practically radiating off of their skin. May leans forward and whispers as low as she can in her nephew’s ear, “Peter, what the fuck?”

Peter tilts his head slightly towards May, “He told me he was gonna do this.” 

“Wait, when did you talk to him -”

Skip starts his second testimony, cutting off May’s whispering, “So after Ned left, I sat at one of their desks and started going over the paper. Peter was having a hard time seeing what the problem was, so I moved to sit next to him on his bed. Just as I started showing the paper to him, he starts...touching my leg. I pushed him away but he kept saying stuff like, ‘C’mon, Ned won’t find out.’”

Peter’s stomach continues swirling like it’s churning butter and he discreetly wraps his free arm around it. Is it possible to get carsick without actually being in a car?

Skip continues his bullshit confession, “No matter how many times I tried to tell him, he persisted, he wouldn’t leave me alone, Dean. It only stopped when Ned showed back up and I high-tailed it outta there.”

Peter is so nauseous that he thinks he might actually throw up. He can’t get over how smooth Skip’s ‘testimony’ was, and...how _ true _ it sounded.

Ned then says angrily, “That is _ not _ what happened.”

The dean sighs, looking so done at this point that it’s impossible for the trio to not relate, and waves her hand in the teen’s direction, “Go on, Mr. Leeds.”

Ned gives his boyfriend’s hand another squeeze as he makes his statement, “Yes, I did ask to speak to Skip and yes, I accused him of sexually harassing Peter because _ that’s what actually happened. _ I’ve known him my whole life, Peter would never do something like this. And when I confronted Skip, he didn’t even deny it.”

Tony looks at him questioningly, “Really?”

“Really. Skip knew what he was doing _and _he said that he wasn’t gonna stop. I wasn’t planning on pushing him but he just...I got so angry at him that it just happened. I know it wasn’t the right thing to do, Dean, but it was all I could think of at the time.”

The woman in charge responds firmly, “Striking a member of this faculty is inexcusable, Mr. Leeds, no matter what the provocation.” 

The older genius then initiates the conversation towards Skip, “You really think any of us believed that, I can smell the bullshit from here.”

The dean interjects, “Mr. Stark, language.”

“Yep, yep, sorry.” The hero turns back to Skip, “Did you really think it was appropriate to be alone with a student in their bedroom? I just wanna know what the fu-heck was going through that hot air balloon that you call a head?”

“With all due respect, Mr. Stark - by the way, I’m a huge fan -”

“Oh, it’s _ waaaay _ too late for the butt-kissing.”

“But with all due respect, I was in their dorm room, which can also mean an ‘apartment’ or a ‘living room.’ The dorm room was not a bedroom when I went in there, the door was wide open.”

Tony rolls his eyes again, “If the room has beds in it, it’s a _ bedroom, _ smartass.” He quickly apologizes to the dean about the language before she comments. The man then pulls out a piece of paper from one of his pockets and unfolds it on the table, “Not that I think we _ need _ proof that what you said was a load of crap, but the kid and I had a..._feeling_ that you might try and twist it. So I took the opportunity to print out a copy of Peter’s paper that you’ve talked so much about.”

That’s news to the spiderling. He gives his mentor a confused look, to which he responds with a wink that tells him “I got this.” Ned turns to the other teenager and murmurs, “What’s going on?”

Peter simply shrugs his shoulders, just as in-the-dark as everyone else in the room.

Tony then asks Skip, who’s looking confused as well, “So, _ Skippy, _ can you tell us what the assignment was?” Both teenagers have to work to hold back snorts at the nickname.

The teacher, looking slightly offended, answers neutrally, “My students had to research a controversial topic, explain the pros and cons, and then express their opinions on that topic. What does the assignment have to do with this?”

The dean chimes in, “I would really like to know myself, Mr. Stark.”

Tony then asks her, “Do you happen to know what asexuality is, Dean?”

The administrator gives the man a confused look but answers anyway, “People who experience no sexual attraction.”

“Yup,” the billionaire slides the paper over to her, “Read it and weep.” While she skims through the essay, he turns back to Skip, “Were you aware that Peter, himself, identifies as asexual, hence why he chose that topic for the assignment?”

It all clicks with Peter and he looks at his father figure with wide eyes. Are they really using his _ essay _ to get out of this? His mentor then gives him another heartfelt wink.

The professor doesn’t respond for several seconds, causing the woman to look up from the paper and firmly say, “Answer the question, Steven.”

Skip stammers for a few seconds before answering with, “N-No, no, I wasn’t aware. He certainly didn’t _ act _ very asexual last night.” 

The dean surprises everyone by saying, “I can smell the bullshit from here, Westcott.” If she heard any gasps and snorts from the crowd, she ignored them, keeping her intimidating gaze on the man, “I need you to look me in the eye and tell me the truth: did Mr. Parker tell you that he is asexual?”

To the teenagers’ delight, the man’s eyes widen in what looks to be fear before he says curtly, “Yes.”

“When?”

“Yesterday, I held him back from class and asked him why he chose that topic, that's when he told me.”

Tony asks, “Why did you go to their dorm room if you already talked to him about his paper in the classroom?”

Skip is silent for a few seconds before saying, “I-I...I told him that we needed to go over the summary, it could’ve used some improvement, that’s what the dorm room visit was for.”

Ms. Bolander speaks up, “Summary looks fine to me.” She slides the essay back to Tony, “So, you went to their dorm room, without invitation, and sexually harassed one of your students who you already _ knew _ would not respond positively to your advances.”

“Dean, obviously this is a setup -”

“A setup for what, Steven? For you to fail? They didn’t help with that, you did that _ all _ on your own.”

The teens and their loved ones are all sporting smug looks, damn near oozing with victory. The young couple squeeze each other’s hands with hope.

The dean then turns to said party, “That being said,” she locks eyes with Ned, “Like I said before, Mr. Leeds, striking a member of this faculty is inexcusable...even if they deserved it.”

Ned says defeatedly, “Yes, ma’am.”

The woman takes in a breath, “According to the bylaws of this university, I am bound to suspend or expel any student for striking an educator for any reason whatsoever.”

The silence in that room is damn near anxiety-inducing. Ned feels his hands getting sweaty and his knee starts bouncing. He looks at his boyfriend and sees him in the same predicament, which makes him feel slightly better.

The dean then states her decision, “Edward Leeds, I hereby suspend you from this university for a period of...one day.”

Ned feels like he could shed tears of pure joy. He feels a hypothetical boulder being lifted off of him and he gives Tony a grateful smile. The man gives him a gentle one of his own and softly grabs his shoulder. He feels Peter’s grip tighten and sighs in relief at his mom’s comforting touches.

Everything is actually going to be okay.

Skip, on the other hand, looks hilariously furious, _ “One day, _ are you kidding me -”

The woman in charge completely ignores him, attention still on the teenager, “You are, however, under probation for the remainder of this academic year. And I will not take kindly if I have to go through a repeat of this, Mr. Leeds.”

Ned quickly reassures her, “You don’t, you don’t have to worry about that at all, Dean, I promise it _ won’t _ happen again, thank you.”

The predator angrily pipes up, “Dean, he assaulted a teacher -”

“A teacher is supposed to be someone a student can trust. You broke that trust the second you walked into that dorm room. Rest assured, Steven, this isn’t over.” The legislator then addresses everyone in the room, “This hearing, however, is adjourned, everybody go home.”

The young couple bury themselves into a hug as their guardians give them praises and pats on the back. Tony, however, decides to follow a certain blonde-haired humanities teacher out the door and stop him about halfway down the hall.

The hero turns the creep around to face him and said creep immediately starts talking, “You got what you wanted, Stark -”

“Lemme tell you something,” Tony crosses his arms in front of him, “You’re lucky the dean got to you before I did.”

Skip rolls his eyes, “Lemme guess: you were gonna kill me?”

The other man shrugs his shoulders, “Yeah.”

“Whatever.”

The professor starts to turn back around but the mechanic holds him back. Tony then holds up his left wrist. “Didya know that if I push a button on my watch, the gauntlet takes two point three seconds to wrap around my hand? And that with it, I can blast _ anyone _ into the next building?”

“What’s your point, Stark?”

Tony puts his hands back into the crossing position, “While I have no doubt that the dean will eventually get you fired and probably blacklisted from all other universities - if she doesn’t get you arrested first, that is -” his voice then lowers, “But if you mess with my kids again, I might just be too impatient to wait for the cops to arrive.” The man then presses a button on his watch and just like he said, the gauntlet appears before their very eyes. 

Skip doesn’t say anything. With one look at that piece of armor, his eyes widen and he races out of the building as fast as he can, Tony mockingly waving at him as he powerwalks.

The genius retracts the armor and joins his loved ones who are still in the conference room waiting for him. Both guardians are each comforting their kids as he walks up, “Everyone okay?”

Ned stands up and gives his hero a hug, “More than okay, thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Tracy confirms, “Seriously, Tony, thank you so much.”

Tony smiles as he wraps his arms around the kid, “You guys did all the work, I just sat there.”

Peter rushes to his side as Ned lets go, “Are you kidding me, you were _ amazing, _ Mr. Stark. I mean, bringing up my essay, _ that _ was genius.”

The billionaire then moves to embrace his protege in a hug, “You’re the one who did the awesome essay, genius, you just made my job a little bit easier.” Peter blushes at that.

When the spiderling lets go, May lovingly ruffles his hair as she addresses the group, “So, are we ready to _ teleport _ back home?” Everyone enthusiastically responds with “yes.”

Everyone quickly “teleports” home via Tony’s private jet. The two kids use the weekend to destress and unwind as their lives slowly turn back to normal.

And on the following Tuesday night, while cuddled in bed and sipping hot chocolate, Ned and Peter celebrate the lack of seeing Professor Steven Westcott.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, thank you so much for following me on this ace journey this week, I had so much fun and hearing everyone's feedback is nothing short of amazing. Until next time!!! 💜💜💜💜
> 
> I'm also on tumblr: @baloobird


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